Hearing this, Han Zong sneered, "We must investigate, but with your mouth and you don't even have a token, how can you prove that Zhou Li is sincere in surrendering?"
"General Han's words are wrong! General Zhou is in the Wu Kingdom. Although he wants to go north, how can he come with a token for the first time when he sends a message? If he is intercepted halfway, wouldn't he be in the hands of others and trap himself?
To die?"
"Only when we mutually agree, send envoys, get to know each other well, and make important decisions, can we give tokens to show our sincerity. Generals are also people who surrender to the north. Don't they even understand this?"
When Xizuo said this, his eyes showed suspicion and he looked at Han Zong.
Han Zong took back his sword and smiled calmly, "Of course I know that I was just testing you."
After saying that, he returned the sword to its sheath, then looked the person up and down, and asked, "Mr. Guan Guan is of extraordinary bearing. Do you dare to ask me your name?"
"If you don't dare to take it seriously, the villain will go up to Dong and go down to Cen. The general can just ask the villain to give in."
"It turns out to be Mr. Dong, but please wait a moment. I'll be back as soon as I go."
Han Zong nodded and signaled Dong Cen not to move, then walked towards the captain not far away and explained everything in detail.
After hearing this, the captain's face showed a look of ecstasy, and he said decisively, "No matter whether this matter is true or false, take the person back first, the commander will make his own decision."
After receiving the news that Zhou Li was about to surrender to the north, Han Zong and his party did not dare to neglect, ate in a hurry, and then headed north without stopping without stopping.
When Cao Xiu received the news, he was overjoyed at first, and then asked the visitor in confusion, "Even if it is true that Zhou Li is dissatisfied with Sun Quan, how can I believe that he is sincerely surrendering?"
Dong Cen seemed to have expected this question, and immediately said, "If the great Sima doesn't believe it, please send someone and the villain back, and then the governor of Zhou will send you a letter of surrender."
Cao Xiu smiled happily and said, "If this is the case, it is best."
Then the guests are invited to the banquet, and the guests of honor enjoy themselves.
After the banquet, Han Zong secretly met with Cao Xiu and persuaded him, "There are many tricks in the south. Zhou Li belongs to a large family in Wu County and is based in the east of the Yangtze River. I am afraid that he may not be able to surrender easily. It is better for Grand Sima to be careful."
Although Cao Xiu drank a lot of wine, his eyes were clear. Hearing the words, he smiled and said, "I know General Han is loyal, but this matter is of great importance. Regardless of whether it is true or false, you always have to test it first."
Han Zong has been defecting to the north for more than a year and has repeatedly led troops to plunder the south. Although Cao Xiu despised him as a human being, he also knew that Han Zong had no way out. If used well, he was indeed a good dog.
Immediately he was willing to explain something, "Your Majesty has just ascended the throne, and it is the time to show off your military power to deter the bandits. Otherwise, why would there be incidents of Wu bandits the year before last and Shu bandits this year?"
"Now His Majesty is personally visiting Guanzhong to supervise the war in Longyou. The rats of Soochow like to take advantage of others. It is impossible to say that they feel that this is a good opportunity to sneak attack on the Wei Dynasty."
"If we wait for them to take the initiative to attack, then we can only defend passively. We might as well strike first and scare the Wu invaders so that they don't dare to act rashly."
Hearing this, Han Zong had a look of admiration on his face, "Da Sima knows Wu Lu so well that he can grasp it like the palm of his hand."
After flattering Cao Zhen, he asked with some worry, "It's just that the Wei Dynasty is currently deploying troops in the west. If there is another war in the east and fighting from both ends, will it be over-whelming but insufficient?"
Cao Xiu smiled confidently, "General Han is worried too much!"
"In the past, when Emperor Wu and the late Emperor were still there, they repeatedly conquered the south of the Yangtze River from Yangzhou. Therefore, there have always been heavy troops stationed in the Jianghuai area. In addition, there has been no war in the Central Plains for many years, and the grain is cheap. The army has sufficient grain and grass, so there is no shortage of military supplies."
"So this time the Zhou bream comes to surrender. Regardless of whether it is true or not, I plan to go south to hunt. If he really surrenders, that would be the best. If he pretends to surrender, then I will take advantage of his plan."
There is another point that Cao Xiu did not mention, and that is: Your Majesty needs martial arts to stabilize his prestige. Why doesn't he, who has just been promoted to the position of Grand Sima, not have this need?
Today, I have just become the supreme commander of the Wei army. If I don't have a dazzling achievement to prove myself, how can others be convinced?
For example, Jia Kui, the governor of Yuzhou next door, not only refused to give himself face, he even dared to contradict him in person, making it difficult for him to step down. It was really abominable.
When Han Zong heard these words, he realized that Grand Sima had already planned it, so he felt relieved and said, "This is an unnecessary move by the general."
"Since I took charge of the Jianghuai affairs, I have won every battle against the Wu bandits. In my eyes, the Wu bandits are just clowns. Why should I be afraid?"
Cao Xiu laughed, his face full of pride.
In the first year of Huangchu, Cao Xiu replaced the former general Xiahou Dun who died of illness and stationed in Zhaoling County, Runan County, responsible for resisting Sun Quan. As soon as he took office, he first defeated Liyang, and then sent troops to cross the river for a sneak attack and burned the Wu army's military camp in Wuhu.
Thousands of homes.
In the third year of Huangchu, Cao Pi went on a personal expedition and divided his troops into three groups to attack Sun Quan. Cao Zhen was in the west, Cao Ren was in the middle, and Cao Xiu was in the east. In the last three armies, only Cao Xiu achieved a great victory, while Cao Zhen had no results and Cao Ren was defeated miserably.
In the seventh year of Huangchu, the year before last, when Cao Rui had just ascended the throne, Sun Quan invaded in two groups, but was defeated by Cao Zhen.
Therefore, Cao Zhen's contempt for Soochow is justified - because he has never lost against Soochow.
The most important thing is that if Zhou Li is really willing to surrender all his counties, then the benefits are so great that Cao Xiu can't help but be willing to try.
As long as he goes south to Lujiang, he will send another large army from Jingzhou to Nanjun and Jiangxia to Xiakou, marching in three directions.
With Zhou Li's support and the capture of Poyang County, the connection between Jingzhou and Wu can be cut off.
If great things can be accomplished, then the three armies can finally merge into one, march directly eastward, and destroy Soochow.
If things don't go as smoothly as expected, at least he can block Sun Quan's army in the east and give the two armies in the west a chance to pacify Jingzhou.
Now that all the soldiers of the Shu captives are on the right side of Longxi, they are certainly unable to prevent the Wei from occupying Jingzhou. As long as the land of Jingzhou is available, the Wei can even attack Shu from the north and the south at any time.
To put it bluntly, even if things go wrong and Poyang cannot be occupied for a long time, it is already considered the hinterland of Soochow. Even if it can only be occupied for a short time, it will be enough to deal a major blow to the Wu invaders.
The more Cao Xiu thought about it, the more he felt that this matter was of great importance, so he couldn't wait to send someone back to Poyang with Zhou Li's envoy the next day.
When the people sent to the south came back, they brought a letter to Cao Xiu and a small bunch of hair, which Zhou Li had personally cut off in the presence of Cao Xiu's envoy.
At the same time, there were two people who came back, one was Dong Cen and the other was Shaonan, both of whom were Zhou Li's confidants.
Cao Xiu was overjoyed and quickly opened the letter and read it.
I saw it said:
The reputation of the bream is unknown, and it is far away from the rivers and rivers. The light of the sun and the moon from the Ming Dynasty's princes and princes shines on the interests of the people in the distance, which actually makes those who return to their lives feel grateful.
Therefore, Wang Jing, the prefect of Guangling, was blamed for the changes in the county. Although he explained himself diligently later, he was not understood in the end. He planned to return to the north because of a secret plan. Unfortunately, the incident was exposed and the baby was killed. This shows that Sun Quan
So ruthless.
The bream was blamed by Sun Quan for a minor offense, and the officials questioned him all the way across the river. Moreover, the people of Poyang County and the barbarians from across the mountains looked for opportunities and wanted to return to chaos. On the day of chaos, the bream's situation was as bad as Wang Jing's.
Therefore, I have to seek help from Ming Gong and Lord...
The letter not only wrote about Zhou Li's difficulties in wanting to return to the north, but also revealed Soochow's plan to invade the north on a large scale, and even pointed out in detail the various soldiers and horses:
Now Zhuge Liang's troops are pointing at Longyou, and Sun Quan also wants to raise his troops to respond: Lu Fan, Sun Shao and others entered Huai, Quan Cong, Zhu Huan went to Hefei, Zhuge Jin, Bu Zhi, Zhu Ran went to Xiangyang, Lu Xun, Pan Zhang and others attacked Yicheng
Umefu.
Sun Quan personally led the Chinese army to cover Shiyang, and sent his younger brother Sun Huan to secure Lucheng, build a palace, and transport grain with chariots as a military reserve.
Later, he pointed out that as soon as Sun Quan sent out troops, the troops along the river would be empty, and at most only 3,000 troops would be left to defend Wuchang.
It was suggested that Cao Xiu directly march to Wancheng, and then Zhou Li himself would lead the powerful officials and people as an internal response. As long as the two armies merged, Wancheng in the north of the Yangtze River and Poyang in the south of the Yangtze River would be owned by the Wei Dynasty.
At the same time, he also wrote: The sent Dong Cen and Shao Nan are members of the family, trusted by the bream relatives, just like sons, so they use special orders and papers to plead for rebellion.
There is no one who knows.
These two people are Zhou Li's most trusted people. When Cao Xiu sends his army south, he can keep one of them as a hostage and ask one of them to come with a letter to notify him of the uprising.
Cao Xiu is reminded again that the central army led by Sun Quan will be the main force at that time and will attack Shiyang in a large scale. I am afraid that there are few soldiers in Shiyang City and they will not be enough to defend it. I hope you will come to the rescue as soon as possible.
dense".
They could even have people hold back Sun Quan who was attacking Shiyang. At the same time, Cao Xiu, who had arrived in Wancheng, could also cut off Sun Quan's retreat from the west, making an unparalleled feat.
At the end of the letter, Zhou Li made a request:
Since this is a major event, since it is not a title, I can't persuade it. I beg the general, the marquis's seal, fifty niaue each, the general's seal, 100 niau, the captain's seal, and the captain's seal, 200 niau each, so that I can give it to the leading commanders and reward them for their ambition.
, and begged dozens of people to serve as a sign.
Cao Xiu watched it from beginning to end, and the more he looked at it, the more delighted he became.
This week Zhou Li not only sent hostages, but also sent liaisons, and even revealed to himself the news that Wu Kou was preparing to invade the north. Although he had long thought that Wu Kou would do this, Zhou Li revealed this
The news also proves from the side that he is sincerely seeking refuge.
As for the official positions he wanted in the end, although they were too many, as long as he could really cut off Sun Quan's retreat and capture the bandit leader, it would be okay to give him more!
It is unbelievable that after this battle, the Wei Dynasty really wiped out the Wu invaders as he thought!
When Cao Xiu thought about this, he finally couldn't help but look up to the sky and laugh: Since Zhou Li said that the Wu invaders will take action soon, as long as they do a little detective work, they will know whether what Zhou Li said is true or false.
If what he said is true, then this person's desire to return to righteousness can no longer be true.
Remembering that Han Zong was also blamed by Sun Quan for being frightened and defecting to the north, Cao Zhen became even more convinced.
What was mentioned in Zhou Li's letter was such a shocking event that Cao Zhen did not dare to make his own claims in private, so he quickly wrote a memorial and had people work day and night to send the memorial and Zhou Li's letter to Chang'an.
At the same time, he sent people to Jiangdong to appease Zhou Li and asked him to wait patiently for some time.